Hey guys, I have some questions about this particular scenario. I've got quite a few of these VW car solar panels. They use them at dealerships to keep the cars batteries fresh. If I had 4 of these running parallel to a controller then to the battery bank, do you think it would help much? How fast would it charge? I've just started reading the 12volt Bible so be easy on me...

Have faith that the oceans are going to rise and flood the world, that plague and pestilence brought on by Climate Change is going to punish us for not believing. Please do as they say it is our only hope. :P

I plan on running two 6 volt deep cell batteries in series. It's a 23' boat so all i'll be running will be depth sounder, radio, and lights at any given time. I'd like to run more like a laptop and router but that's down the road...

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Telstar 28
New England

You know what the first rule of sailing is? ...Love. You can learn all the math in the 'verse, but you take
a boat to the sea you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turning of the worlds. Love keeps
her going when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurting 'fore she keens. Makes her a home.

—Cpt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity (edited)

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Even free I doubt they would be worth it as they take up too much space. Maybe get enough to keep batteries charged while away from the boat. Determine that by checking voltage every time you visit the boat (you already do that) and keep adding until you find the voltage does not drop between visits but is not higher than about 13volts, or get a regulator at that point.

Have faith that the oceans are going to rise and flood the world, that plague and pestilence brought on by Climate Change is going to punish us for not believing. Please do as they say it is our only hope. :P

It is definitely worth playing with.
I find my 400mA 6W panel is big enough to
work as a maintenance charger.
I also have a 1.2A 18W panel that can keep
up with our live aboard house loads in the summer.
On a very sunny day it can be powerful enough to
cook a battery if used without a charge controller
and not watched carefully.

I need to research this more, but is it possible to run multiple panels in series to increase output? I know that most panels are just a bunch of cells run in series to give more output. Bigger panel means bigger output. If I end up with enough of these I may sacrafice a few for research!

If anything, my main goal would be to make sure my bank doesn't get 50% discharged at any given time. I don't know what my average weekend of use will consist of yet - hell I don't even have the boat in the driveway yet...

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